Thirteen ocean creatures have surfaced all around Bristol’s BS5 postcode, snapped by some of the world’s very best wildlife photographers. To prove how turtle-y awesome they all are, we’ve created blogs on all of the featured species sharing ten epic facts about them! Sail your way around the exhibition by downloading your very own map and guide.

1)Blue whales are the largest animals ever known to have lived on Earth, growing to lengths of up to nearly 30m – that’s the length of two double decker buses!

2) Everything about this whale is huge apart from its diet of tiny krill, which it eats up to 40 million of every day.

3) A blue whale’s tongue alone can weigh as much as an elephant – the world’s largest land mammal

4) A blue whale’s heart is so huge, around the size of a car, its beat can be detected from over three kilometres away.

5) The blood vessels of blue whales are so wide you could swim through them, but we don’t recommend trying it.

6) Even the babies are massive, being born at lengths of up to 6m and weighing nearly 4,000kg!

7) Baby blue whales put any bodybuilder to shame, gaining up to 90kg a day until they reach a pretty sizeable 15m in length. Their growth rate is one of the fastest in the animal world. #Hulk

8) Blue whales belong to the ‘baleen’ whale family, meaning instead of teeth they have baleen, a fibrous material that looks a bit like the head of a sweeping brush, used to filter their food as they swim.

9) To communicate with each other, blue whales make a series of super-loud vocal sounds. Their calls are one of the loudest of any creature on the planet, audible to other blue whales up to 500 miles away!

10) Despite being hunted to near extinction, with only 1% of their population remaining, blue whales have started to make a comeback and numbers are the highest they’ve been in decades.

Sperm whales might not be as beautiful as some of their cousins, but they are enormously charismatic animals of immense power and grace, grafted into our legends and folklore through stories such as Moby Dick. When a sperm whales dives, it is descending to the deep, dark depths of our oceans: an alien world at the boundaries of human understanding. They are true Olympians of the natural world: the largest toothed predator to have ever existed on our planet, the largest brain of any animal ever and currently the loudest animal alive. We know of only one species which can dive as deep, for as long a period of time. Through their role in ocean food webs, we also know that sperm whales actually slow climate change!

What are the threats to sperm whales?

Whales in our oceans today face more threats than ever before. One of the biggest problems with studying sperm whales is that they live far out in the open ocean, far from land, and so it is almost impossible to tell exactly how their population is faring. Sperm whales face a particular risk from chemical pollution owing to the dual effects of bio-accumulation and bio-magnification. Most mammals, including humans and sperm whales, find it difficult to get rid of toxicants which enter their bodies, and over time these toxicants accumulate, a process known as bio-accumulation. Bio-magnification is a term which describes how doses of toxicants increase significantly each step up a food chain. As long-lived apex predators, sperm whales thus face a particular risk from these two processes.

As animals reliant on sound for finding food and communicating with other sperm whales, the impacts of an increasingly noisy ocean (owing to increases in human-caused sounds such as shipping, military sonar and seismic exploration) are to likely cause significant stress for sperm whales. Other threats include climate change, bycatch in fishing lines/nets and ship strikes.

What are you doing to save it?

Ocean Alliance has been working to protect whales and their ocean environment since 1971. After commercial whaling ended, our founder and president, Dr. Roger Payne, predicted that chemical pollution would replace the whalers harpoon as the greatest threat to whales. In response to this, from 2000-2005 Ocean Alliance carried out the Voyage of the Odyssey, a 5 ½ year research expedition which collected the first ever baseline data on pollution in our oceans from every major ocean basin using a single indicator species: sperm whales.

More recently, our efforts have switched to using drones to study whales. We believe that rapid recent advances in drone technology will create a new generation of powerful, cost-effective, non-invasive tools that will allow us to increase our understanding of whales, and how we might protect them, at a time when they need this desperately.

ICYMI: Arkive has compiled some of the biggest and most interesting headlines from this week.

Article originally published on Friday, May 15, 2015

The war on India’s tiger preserves

Bengal tiger

The government of India provides funds to help willing residents move out of protected tiger habitat and onto nearby farmland. At times, however, factors working against tigers include luxury resort chains that want to build “ecotourism” lodges that do not allow tigers to live nearby. Other times, it is mining companies that wish to move deeper into protected areas.

Florida is awaiting approval to host its first bear hunt in 20 years. The hunt is considered a method of controlling the bear population, since Florida has seen an increase in human-bear conflicts. Opponents of the bear hunt note that improperly secured food/trash attracts bears and that people should focus on trash management and not on hunts.

Wildlife experts counteract fallacies about coyotes

Adult coyote

Two recent coyote attacks in Bergen county, New Jersey have brought this canid to the forefront of the conversation about wildlife. Wildlife experts stress that while coyotes are predators, they very rarely attack humans. They also informed the public that coyotes are not the top carriers of rabies in the area. Most importantly, coyotes play a vital role in the ecosystem by controlling rodent populations.

Fuzzy ducklings are the future of this Hawaiian species

Male Laysan duck

The Laysan duck is a critically endangered bird endemic to Hawaii that in 1911 had fewer than 20 birds due to invasive rats. Conservation efforts brought the population back to almost 1,000 birds, but 40 percent of them were lost in 2011 due to the Japan Tsunami. In 2014, however 28 young Laysan ducks were moved to Kure Atoll State Wildlife Sanctuary in an effort to establish a population on Kure.

Giant panda gut bacteria can’t efficiently digest bamboo

Giant panda eating bamboo

The giant panda is known for primarily eating bamboo, but the microbiota it harbors in its stomach actually resembles that which is found in carnivores, a recent study found. It poses a conundrum since pandas spend up to 14 hours a day consuming up to 12.5 kg of bamboo leaves and stems, yet can only digest 17 percent of it.

EU concerned about farming impact on its wildlife

Skylark

In the EU major threats to grasslands, wetlands, and dune habitats were overgrazing, fertilization and pesticides. Fifteen percent of birds in the EU are near threatened or in decline including once common birds such as the skylark.

Photos from the front: the California oil spill in pictures

Adult gray whale breaching

On Tuesday, an underground oil pipeline burst near Goleta, California spilling crude oil into the Pacific. Whales and sea lions were spotted in the area where the spill occurred. It is estimated that 21,000 gallons of crude oil entered the ocean.

ICYMI: Arkive has compiled some of the biggest and most interesting headlines from this week.

Article originally published on Friday, May 1, 2015

Bat wings use sensory cells to change shape mid-flight

Bechstein’s bat

The hair on a bat’s wings has receptors that fire messages to the brain, which allow them to slow down quickly and make tight turns. In most mammals, pathway messages from the forelimbs travel to the neck, in bats however, messages travel to both the neck and the trunk.

Malnourished sea lion found hidden under car in San Francisco

Young California sea lion

A sea lion pup was coaxed from its hiding spot through the efforts of police and animal rescue crews. Apparently this is the second time that this particular pup has been found wandering the streets. Diminishing food sources, appear to be one of the reasons that several pups have been found malnourished and sick.

Starfish suffer mysterious and gruesome demise along west coast

Crown of thorns starfish

From southern Alaska down to Baja California, sea stars have been dying in droves. The cause seems to be a poorly understood wasting disease known as sea star associated densovirus. Encouraging though, is the news that baby sea stars have been found along the coast in some of the affected areas.

Wolves and coyotes feel sadness and grieve like humans

Eurasian wolf

Author Marc Bekhoff describes how a pack of wolves lost their spirit and playfulness after the loss of one of their female members. He also hypothesizes that similar to dogs, wolves and coyotes can experience physiological disorders.

30 illegal orangutan pets seized in West Kalimantan

Juvenile southern Bornean orangutan

Thirty orangutans being kept as pets have been seized and placed in a rehabilitation center. Orangutans usually live with their mother until the age of seven or eight. The orangutans are learning to fend for themselves so they can be released into the wild.

New species of diving beetle found living in isolation in Africa

Great diving beetle

A scientist has discovered a new species of diving beetle on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. It has no direct relatives and has been placed in its own genus with its scientific name being Capelatusprykei. Its closest relatives are diving beetles found in the Mediterranean and New Guinea.

An American Airlines plane traveling from Costa Rica to Hong Kong was carrying 904 lbs. of dried hammerhead shark fins when it touched down in Miami. The ensuing outcry caused by the incident led to American Airlines announcing that it has ceased to ship shark fins. The species’ fins found on the plane were from the vulnerable smooth hammerheads and the endangered scalloped hammerheads.

Wildlife officials move forward to lift wolf protections

Mackenzie Valley wolf

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission decided to move forward with the process of delisting the grey wolf from their endangered species list. The two options they are considering are: delisting the wolves statewide or partially, in eastern Oregon only.

New England amphibian migration endangered by late spring

Wood frog on mossy log

Every spring salamanders and frogs use vernal pools to mate and lay eggs. With the delayed spring, the time available for offspring to grow is reduced, which could affect their development. Among the affected species is the wood frog.

Bumblebees use nicotine to fight off parasites

Vestal cuckoo bee on flower

Parasite-infected bumblebees that consume nicotine-laced nectar delay the progress of the infection. However, the life expectancy of these bumblebees is not increased. On the other hand, healthy bees that consume nicotine appear to shorten their lifespans.

Five tons of frozen pangolin: Indonesian authorities make massive bust

Sunda pangolin

Officials in Medan, Sumatra confiscated 169 lbs. of pangolin scales and 96 live Sunda pangolins from a smuggler. The pangolins were destined for China, where their scales are used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Jane Goodall wants SeaWorld shut down

Orca pair underwater

Jane Goodall believes the marine park giant should be shut down because the tanks for dolphins and whales create an “acoustical hell”. Goodall also noted that she hoped the awareness generated by documentaries like “Blackfish” led to greater understanding of how amazing these animals are.

Can assisted reproduction save the cheetah?

Juvenile cheetah

Today’s cheetah population suffers from low genetic diversity with most living cheetahs being between 5 percent and 10 percent genetically alike. Cheetah experts agree that assisted reproduction is only a stop gap with the real progress involving restoring habitat and preventing their hunting and killing.